If I make a system image of version 1803 on an external hard drive (using the built in software of Windows 10) and in the future want to make an image of an updated version of Windows 10, can it be made on the same external drive or is there a way to do this? Thanks in advance for any input about this.
Mark
You can create as many images as disk space will allow you can set it to compressed so you have more room. The thing is don't use windows use a free disk image as windows gives lots of problems and few people use it
First, the built in Windows system imaging in 'Backup & Restore (Windows 7)' is a deprecated feature, meaning it may not actually be in your future version of Windows 10.
Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators UpdateMicrosoft said:
Second, it can be unreliable and temperamental. The most common failing is that it fails to recognise an image that could be restored.
But to answer your questions, given sufficient space you can back up a system image again to the same external drive and it will keep the previous image. On a restore you will be able to choose which one to restore from the available images. Once the drive starts to be too full the older images will be deleted when you make a new image. There are no user controls for how older images will be purged to make way for the new, and there are no warning give as to which image may be removed. You can never be certain exactly what previous images may be retained when you make a new one.
To get round this limitation, some try to rename the image files/folders it creates in order to preserve them. The safest one to rename is the WindowsImageBackup folder in the root of the external drive. The next system image operation will create a new WindowsImageBackup folder of its own so the older image will not be at risk of being deleted without your knowledge or permission. On a restore, you'll have to rename the one containing the image you want to restore back to WindowsImageBackup before beginning. Be warned, renaming files has been implicated as one way of breaking the ability to restore an image.
In short, yes you can keep several images on the one external drive. But it is unreliable imaging solution and may fail just when you need it the most.
Many here, myself included, recommend Macrium Reflect, the Free version being sufficient for most users' needs.
How much do you trust Macrium Reflect? - Windows 10 Forums
I'm afraid not, there are no user controls for the compression the built-in imaging uses. A system image created by Backup & Restore will be approximately the same size as the used space on the partitions being imaged. You cannot use ntfs compression on the drive containing the images either, the restore operation fails if the image is an ntfs compressed file or on a compressed drive.
I was refering to most imaging software which do let you commpress the disk image not windows
Thank you all for your valuable information. I know of Macrium Reflect and think I'll use it instead of Windows Image Creation. Again, much appreciation for the replies.
Mark
Mark,
Just to round things off about the built-in imaging facility -
Because the built-in imaging facility is "deprecated",
- it may be removed in future versions, and
- while it remains, MS will only fix security vulnerabilities not functional ones. Therefore, if you made an image you could not be certain if you could restore it [even today].
There are alternatives to Macrium reflect but it must easily be the most recommended one in this forum. Personally, I use Acronis True Image. I have not used Paragon backup & restore for several years now but I noticed that a new version has been released.
Denis
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